


fear (first time for everything)

by EllaYuki



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: 100 Year Quests (Fairy Tail), Canon Compliant, Chapter Related, F/M, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, Lucy POV, Post 100YQ Chapter 21
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-12-06 23:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18226652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllaYuki/pseuds/EllaYuki
Summary: In all the time Lucy's known Natsu, she's never once been afraid of him or his flames.Today, looking at him taking down the Water God Dragon, she is.





	fear (first time for everything)

Lucy looks on in something close to horror.

The Water God Dragon has finally fallen, and Natsu is standing over its body, back to them, shoulders stiff but heaving.

When he does look at them over his shoulder, after long moments of silence, another shiver of fear courses up Lucy’s spine. He’s never looked more terrifying, more like an actual dragon.

There are still bright red scales down the sides of his face and covering parts of his cheeks (and probably down his body, too), and his pupils are still slit like a cat’s, irises still yellow. There’s steam curling out of the corner of his parted lips and up around his wrists and forearms. His fingers still look like dragon claws.

Irrationally, Lucy half expects him to spout a pair of wings out of his back as well, and fly off into the sky. She wouldn’t be all that surprised if it actually happened at this point.

It’s only seconds before both Erza and Gray start towards him, Happy flying out in front of them, all of them relieved that the huge dragon has been dealt with, regardless of how dangerous Natsu looks right now. Normally, Lucy would be right beside them, but she can’t seem to make her feet move quite yet.

“There’s something…” she hears from beside her and she manages to tear her eyes off of Natsu just in time to catch the shudder coursing through Wendy’s tiny frame. She hadn’t even noticed that the younger Dragon Slayer hasn’t moved yet either.

“Dangerous,” Lucy completes the thought for her, and when Wendy looks up at her, eyes wide, she adds, “Terrifying.” She looks back at Natsu. “I’ve never once been scared of Natsu’s flames. Not even when he burned down the entire arena in the Capital.” She swallows past the knot in her throat. “Today I am.”

“Yeah,” she hears Wendy say, but still, the girl moves forward, one careful step at a time, her Exceed right beside her. For once, Lucy wishes she had an Exceed of her own. (Or maybe that Happy had shared her fear, for once.)

She takes a deep breath.

Then slowly, tentatively, she approaches her friends. It’s ridiculous, she knows, being scared of Natsu after everything, but she can’t help it. His eyes are still molten gold, he still looks one step away from lighting the whole world on fire.

When he lets out a breath, there’s a wisp of a flame that comes out with it that still has the weird tinge of color to it of Ignia’s fire, and Lucy couldn’t stamp out the yelp that leaves her at the sight even if she tried.

It’s loud enough for Natsu to hear, even from a distance, and his eyes immediately snap up to meet hers. The intensity in them sends several different kinds of shivers running up and down her spine again, and has sparks lighting up her every nerve ending.

Lucy stops walking. For a second, everything stills.

She can’t look away from that molten gaze. She wonders, fearfully, if his eyes will end up staying like that forever. (She hopes not.)

No sooner has the thought passed through her head, though, that something changes, like a switch has been flipped.

Natsu’s eyes go back to their normal, hazel color, pupils rounding on a blink, and the scales all but vanish. There’s still a bit of a frown marring his features, but it’s nowhere near as deep as moments ago.

“Lucy?” he calls out, head tilted slightly to the side, and finally, _finally_ , Lucy feels like she can breathe properly again. There’s still a tinge of fear in her, but the relief washing over her is overwhelming. It’s Natsu. He’s himself again. “Hey, you weirdo, why are you all the way over there?”

And Lucy scoffs, because of course Natsu would be this oblivious after scaring the daylights out of her. She sighs, and pushes the remaining fear away. She’ll deal with it later, if need be.

“You know something, Natsu?” she starts, a small smile on her face, just as she reaches their little group.

_Things will be fine,_ she thinks to herself as she pulls on his ear, and scolds him good-naturedly.

( _Things will be just fine,_ she hopes.

She prays.

_Please, please, just let things be fine for once_.)

 


End file.
